frequent questions
glossary
What is a basic bank account?
Access to the credit intermediary activity
List of authorised credit intermediaries
How to protect yourself from online fraud?
Know your rights when making payments in Europe.
Do you know what the gross domestic product is? What about inflation? (only in Portuguese)
Key tips to protect yourself when choosing online or mobile banking services.
Banco de Portugal's Bank Customer Website publishes the updated list of credit intermediaries authorised to carry out activity in Portugal.
From today, Banco de Portugal also publishes the list of registered credit intermediaries, in an Excel file, updated weekly and available for download.
Each week, Banco de Portugal will also issue information on the status of authorisation requests to carry out credit intermediary activity, approvals and rejections.
As of 30 November 2018, 3,140 authorisation requests had been received, of which 2,553 were under review by Banco de Portugal on that day. 498 authorisation requests were approved and 89 were rejected.
Source: Banco de Portugal
For more information, see here.
When a consumer and a credit institution enter into a credit agreement, a third party may be involved: the credit intermediary.
The credit intermediary is a natural or legal person that participates in the credit concession process, for example:
Presenting or proposing credit agreements to consumers;
Assisting consumers in preparatory work for credit agreements, even where not presented or proposed by the credit intermediary;
Entering into credit agreements with consumers on behalf of the lending institutions;
Providing consultancy services, by making personalised recommendations on credit agreements.
The credit intermediary is not authorised to provide credit, nor to participate in selling other banking products or services, such as time deposits or payment services.
Since 1 January 2018, Banco de Portugal has been responsible for authorising and registering all the natural or legal persons wanting to carry out credit intermediary activity or provide consultancy services regarding credit agreements.
Applicants should submit authorisation requests to Banco de Portugal, which has 90 days to issue its decision. Where clarifications or additional elements are requested, this may be extended up to 180 days from delivery of the initial submission.
Authorisation and registration requests may be made through this Website.
List of registered credit intermediaries (xlsx)
List of entities qualified to operate as credit intermediaries
List of credit institutions, financial companies, payment institutions and electronic money institutions providing credit intermediation services or consultancy services regarding credit contracts in which they do not participate as lenders
Credit intermediaries - status of authorisation requests